[warnergt]

Well, it fits but there is not enough
clearance for the tray to open. The
front panel on the tray hits the Mac
front bezel.

The Pioneer DVR-105 appears to have a
front panel that is a hair smaller.
Will it work? Does anybody have
experience installing either a Pioneer
DVR-104 or DVR-105 into an mirrored-front
2003 Mac.

Do these new Macs only come with Sony drives?

[SSharon]

I hope someone can help and if they can include a short list of compatible/recomended cdrw drives that fit into the dual 1ghz (firewire 400) mirrored drive doors that would be great.
As for the pioneer drive if its just a hair off take a knife and cut some plastic off (you may want to wait for a few more people to post before taking that advice )

[capuchin]

Originally posted by warnergt:
Well, it fits but there is not enough
clearance for the tray to open. The
front panel on the tray hits the Mac
front bezel.

The Pioneer DVR-105 appears to have a
front panel that is a hair smaller.
Will it work? Does anybody have
experience installing either a Pioneer
DVR-104 or DVR-105 into an mirrored-front
2003 Mac.

Do these new Macs only come with Sony drives?

Actually, you can unclip the front drive plate - poke a paperclip into the eject hole on the front, then gently pull the tray out a couple of inches. From there, you should be able to work the plate off relatively easily. Worked like a charm with my DVR-105. Make sure you put the new drive in the upper slot, though, as otherwise 10.2.4 doesn't always recognize it.

[warnergt]

Originally posted by capuchin:
Actually, you can unclip the front drive plate - poke a paperclip into the eject hole on the front, then gently pull the tray out a couple of inches. From there, you should be able to work the plate off relatively easily. Worked like a charm with my DVR-105. Make sure you put the new drive in the upper slot, though, as otherwise 10.2.4 doesn't always recognize it.

capuchin, you are the man! Yes, it worked
like a charm. The front plate on the
DVR-105 is indeed clipped on. If you work
the tray out and turn the drive upside
down, you can see two little tabs that
keep the front plate clipped on. Gently
pull the plate out at those tabs and then
you can gently slide it upward (toward the
top of the drive) and it comes right off.

The Mac recognizes the DVR-105 and it
is "fully supported." iDVD works fine.

[warnergt]

By the way, now that I am inspecting the
DVR-104 (which is also fully supported),
I can see that the plate on the front of
its tray is held on by two springs. I'm
sure that I could have removed that, too.